


We Deserved Better

by PrincessTutu22



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: All Human AU, Bamon/Steroline romance, Drabble Series, F/M, Ficlet Series, Gen, Humor, Occasional angst, Romance, Stefonnie friendship, belvafore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-05 12:00:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11577657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessTutu22/pseuds/PrincessTutu22
Summary: An all human AU drabble/ficlet series dedicated to Bonnie Bennett and Stefan Salvatore, who deserved a better friendship and a better ending.





	1. Grocery Run

**Author's Note:**

> With the series' end a few months ago and my forever saltiness of Stefan's and some of Bonnie's endings, this fic series was inevitable. Reviews and kudos are love, and more background behind the fic to come next chapter. Also, if anyone's interested I'm looking for a beta reader for my next chapter, so drop a line in the comments if you're interested and we'll work something out.

Bonnie grabs the cart from her best friend and swivels it down the snack aisle, procuring bags of Doritos, double stuffed Oreos, and liters of Mountain Dews as Stefan recounts the antics of his desk neighbour at work.

“I’m telling you, Bon. Bryan is a full scale infant in need of diaper changes, bottle feeding, and burping. He can’t do a single thing by himself. It’s embarrassing. I’m supposed to be an intern. Instead I make all his coffee runs, make calls to his pet sitter and waste half of my evenings on the weekend proofing, fixing, and making his presentations.” He snatches a pack of mini marshmallows out from her hand before she can drop it in the basket and holds it out of her reach, “Really, Bonnie? Overkill.”

“Who are you, my dietitian?” she snorts and leans in on her tiptoes to reach up for the bag, but Stefan only raises his arm higher.

“No, I'm the next best thing. I wouldn’t be a good best friend if I let you chow down on”, he squints at the nutrition facts on the back, “sucrose and corn syrup.”

“No, but you would be the sweetest one ever”, she bumps her hip against his, catching him off guard, and catches the marshmallows when he drops them from his hand, “Thank you very much.” 

He looks at her incredulously but she just moves her shoulders in time with the beat of the music playing in the grocery store and asks, “You were saying?”

“I don't know how he gets me to do it either. ‘Stefan, my hands are little tied. Would you mind helping me out? You're the best, pal. I'll pay you back for this one, I promise.’ It's ludicrous ”, he all but pouts.

“Saint Stefan comes to the rescue once again, huh?” Bonnie says.

He scoffs. “Don’t remind me. I happen to have the word no in my vocabulary, Bon.”

“So grow a pair and use it. He's only going to keep using you unless you stick up for yourself.” They're in the next aisle and she's reaching for a bag of Nestlé's chocolate chips.

“Does that mean if I stand up to you I can get out of helping you clean out your storage space this Saturday”, he eyes her, lifting up an eyebrow, causing her to roll her eyes and drop her hand.

“Pfft, not a chance, Salvatore. This is one bully you can't get rid of. You tried though”, she smiles saucily.

“Scoundrel ”, he smacks her on the arm and nudges her aside, “Move over. I need to buy some shaving cream and disposable razors.”

“Good, you’re starting to get a little prickly”, she runs her thumb along his jaw and then gives it a good pat. “Speaking of, I’m just as guilty when it comes to saying no. Remember that summer, when we were kids, and you practically begged me to jump off Wickery Bridge with you?”

“I did not beg”, he denies, “but I don’t remember you saying yes either. In fact, you flat out told me no, saying that you couldn’t get water in your hair-”

“You think hair like mine stays straight on its own”, she tosses some aftershave into the cart for him.

“-but you came rushing back later saying that you wanted to give it a try. Gillette or Edge”, he holds up two bottles of shaving cream for her to choose from.

“How about Pure Silk”, Bonnie indicates toward the shelf of feminine shaving products and smiles cheekily.

“That’s not even a little funny. Why was that, though?” he just throws one in the basket and keeps pushing on, “What made you change your mind?”

“Oh, nothing really. Just thought I’d give it a try”, she says. “Is this all we need?”

“Looks like it. Though I think you could do without the Cool Whip, B.”

“Don’t you start with me, Stefan”, she counters.

“Fine, fine. Race you to the checkout line?”

“You are so on.” She's already dashing for the counter and leaves flabbergasted Stefan to push the cart after her.


	2. Summer Lovin'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonnie and Stefan out on Wickery Bridge on a hot, summer day as kids moving out of middle school. (slight Bamon)

Out when traffic is nonexistent and most of Mystic Fall's inhabitants are in their air conditioned homes or places of business, the youth of Mystic Falls are at the old Wickery Bridge to escape the heat and socialize in the sun. Boy and girls of the middle and high school variety are up and down the bridge on their lawn chairs or sitting on its railings. Some of the older ones are passing around bottles of aging, brown liquid, but if an adult were to pop in to check on them, they would be none the wiser as they clink their Coca Cola bottles together.

A 13-year-old Bonnie Bennett is basking in the sun on her lawn chair and her best friend Stefan returns to his beside her with two red plastic cups of soda. This summer marks the end of their middle school years, and Bonnie's already celebrated the transition by relaxing her hair. She’s happy that now she too can flip and flounce her hair like the blonde and brunette Caucasian girls that occupy more of their age group that anyone that looks like her. She twirls a curly strand around her finger and still finds that she enjoys the softness.

“Hey, check them out”, Stefan nods towards the high schoolers climbing onto the railing of the bridge, about to take a dip. The guys standing up strong and tall bare their chests as if they are the coolest ones there and goading a few girls to come up with them. “You want to try that, Bon?”

She accepts the drink from his hand with a smile of thanks before turning to where he’s looking, seeing the group of five jump simultaneously and plunge into the river below them. The drop itself sets Bonnie ill at ease, but she’s not looking forward to the water that could potentially wash over her head either.

“I’d rather not. You can go ahead, though”, she takes a sip from her cup.

“It won’t be as fun unless you do it with me”, he attempts to persuade her, but she isn’t having any of it.

She shakes her head, “My dad’ll get mad. He paid quite a bit to get my hair relaxed, and I want it to keep looking nice.”

“Your hair will be fine, Bonnie. Just one quick dip, pleeaase”, he’s out with the puppy eyes.

“Don’t do that, Stefan. You know that doesn’t work on me”, she laughs and throws an arm over her eyes. In their eight years of friendship, she’s been trying to build an immunity to his charm, and now that she thinks she can finally withstand him, he’s sucking her right back in.

Unbeknownst to her, his wiggling fingers are about to tickle her exposed stomach when a voice breaks their antics, “Stefan, I forgot to mention that mom wants you home by 8.”

Bonnie removes her arm from her eyes to see Stefan’s older brother conversing with him.

“Why just me? What about you?” he asks.

“Because I’m older than you, smarty. Little kids shouldn’t be running around after dark”, Damon smiles snarkily.

Stefan crosses his arms and harrumphs, undone by the unfairness of it all. Bonnie understands, but she’s a little envious of his mom’s concern. Her father, who’s usually in the middle of work, hardly asks after her if she’s not home after a certain time. He assumes she’s already in her room or over at Grams (who makes it her business to know exactly where Bonnie is after dark).

Still, she finds herself giggling at her best friend’s pouting face and coolly observes the brothers as they interact. She notices that Damon’s black hair is a little wet and his skin, which usually has a ghostly paleness, is tanning a bit from the midday sun. He’s only two years older than her, but the differences between him and his scrawnier younger brother are more apparent from the fullness of his arms, sporting a little more muscle than she’s attributed to him in the past. His voice is deeper too and she’s unaware of herself leaning in a little to catch more of his words. Puberty did him well.

His electric blue eyes look to her while they talk, as if he’s only now noticing that she’s there. 

“Hey, Bonnie. It’s good to see you again”, he greets her casually.

Caught off guard by the interest he’s showing in her now, she stammers a hello and take a long drink from her cup to hide her embarrassment. He’s tilting his head a little, looking at her like he’s puzzled, then a confident smile returns to his features as he says, “You did something with hair. I like it.”

“Thank you”, she says softly and rests a hand over her tummy at the sudden flop her stomach takes.

He nods, “Anyway, stay out of trouble, Steffy. Remember 8 o'clock”, he winks at Bonnie before turning around and jogging back to his friends. 

“I can’t believe him sometimes. Telling me what to do”, he looks to her for confirmation.

She’s thankful for the brownness of her skin, otherwise Stefan would easily be able to tell how flattered Damon’s attention made her feel, “Yeah, the nerve of him.”

“That’s a no to swimming then? I kind of wanted to give it a shot. Be the cool eighth graders that dared to jump off the old bridge”, he orchestrates his hands like his hamming up a newspaper headline, “Our high school cred could go up two whole points.”

“We have cred”, she quirks her eyebrow.

“We will the minute we step into Mystic Falls High, maybe as soon as we hit the lawn. At least you’ll be able to pull yours up from scratch. I’ve got Damon Salvatore's dopey, weird little brother tattooed on my forehead”, he rolls his eyes. 

“Not true. You’re not dopey”, she places a hand on his bare shoulder with a faux sense of comfort. The mirthful laugh that bubbles out of her is easily brought on by his swatting retaliation. She ignores his offenses and lays her head on his shoulder. They relax together for awhile, enjoying the atmospheric delight of sun spray raining from the skies and water gun fights breaking out left and right. Tyler’s already gunning down an easily catchable Matt whose only defense is grabbing Caroline and moving her in front of him. She shrieks at the concentrated blast of water and scrambles away for her towel, leaving Matt an open target.

Her gaze glides to the huddle of high school boys tossing around a football. Among their ranks she sees Damon rushing for the ball, and while he intercepts a pass, she's paying his broad back and shoulders a tiny toll of admiration. 

How do you start to notice these little things about a guy? Is the occurrence gradual? The signs are already there, so maybe it’s just a sign of maturity, or graduating into womanhood, when peeking a little more when he bends down, or paying enough attention to the tapering of your heart to make sure it doesn’t beat too wildly in your chest when it looks like he might look at you. And exercising restraint to grab the phone and dial the three digits when it feels like your stomach is on fire when he actually does.

So when it stops being only enough to look at him, for him to have your attention, you’re on to the next step that dictates that you have to have his. His eyes have to follow you around the room and see that you can be just as pretty, just as dangerous, just as spunky as the girls he checks out on the regular. His eyes on Bonnie justifies her tap on Stefan’s shoulder to arouse him from his nap.

“Is there something you need”, he yawns.

“Do you still want to jump? Off Wickery Bridge”, she asks.

“Well, yeah. Why?”

“Let's do it”, she gathers her hair up in a band as best as she can.

“Ok, but why’re you changing your mind. You said you can't get your hair wet”, he walks alongside her. They look over the railing at the waters flowing calmly.

“I'm allowed to change my mind aren't I”, she says with attitude, then softens, “And you know, the cred.” 

“Alright”, he nods and climbs up on the bars, “Gimme your hand.”

Bonnie accepts only after a second of hesitation. No turning back now, she reasons. Heads are turning and fingers are pointing. She's not looking but she hopes his is one of them. She can't talk herself out of it now.

Their fingers lace together nice and tight, and Stefan whispers, “On the count of three, Bon. You ready?”

“One”, she starts off.

“Two”, he squeezes her hand a little more. Bonnie hadn't considered that Stefan would be nervous either. Maybe they should turn back. 

“Three”, he shouts at the same time she breathes in softly, and their feet have left the railing. Flying like paper, high like planes, then plummeting, sinking like rocks.

Immediately her legs are kicking and her head is bobbing up seconds after his breaks the surface.

“Wow”, he stares, but a smile is spreading his face so wide it hurts.

“No kidding”, she gulps in some air. Her hair is a weight sticking to her face and her neck. My dad's going to kill me, she thinks. But she's smiling too. 

She chances a brave look up at the bridge. She sees him bending over the railing with a few of his friends. He nods at Stefan, impressed, then spoons a little to Bonnie like he hands those kinds of smiles out for free.

Her heart clenches, then starts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been finished just as long as chapter one, but I was hoping I'd get a beta to help me with revising and critiques, but since I'll be busy this week with so many new transitions, I don't want to keep anyone waiting.
> 
> As I mentioned in the chapter before, this fic series is a dedication to Stefan, Bonnie, and the friendship they missed out on, as well as everyone who stans them (together or just as individuals). 
> 
> It's mostly an all-human AU with a linear story/plot line, but since not every post will be like that (I want some sweet drabble-y fun too), I'm more than open to in canon and AU Stefonnie brotp centered prompt ideas. This is for all of us, and I want to do my best for a relationship that these two characters deserved.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love.


End file.
